Mozilla reaches 40 million people in anti-SOPA campaign

During yesterday's Web protest against antipiracy legislation,
Firefox
blacked out its start page and redirected users to Mozilla's anti-SOPA
and PIPA action page. It also posted 9 million messages about the two pending bills on Facebook, Twitter, and in its Firefox + You newsletter.

(Credit:
Mozilla)

As a result, more than 40 million people were reached, announced Mozilla News today.
"All these steps were aimed at informing and mobilizing millions of
people on the poorly drafted anti-piracy legislation--SOPA and
PIPA--pending in Congress," Alex Fowler wrote in The Mozilla Blog.
According to Fowler, around 30 million people in the U.S. use Firefox's
default start page, which reached the lion's share of users; and the
social media messages Mozilla sent out were retweeted, shared, and liked
by more than 20,000 people.
One such retweeter was MC Hammer, who wrote, "Firefox !!!! Standing Strong against #SOPA Love4thePeople."
As a result of Mozilla's campaign, 360,000 e-mails were sent to senators
and members of Congress, 1.8 million people went to mozilla.org/sopa to
learn more about the antipiracy laws, and 600,000 went on to visit the
Strike Against Censorship page that is hosted by the Electronic Frontier
Foundation, Fowler said.
Other major Web sites also launched informational and take-action campaigns. Google redirected users to sign a petition being sent to Congress and the Senate that more than 7 million people signed. Wikipedia completely blacked out its English language site and provided information for people to protest SOPA and PIPA.
It's likely that this isn't the last that U.S. legislators will hear
from these protesters. "The debate is far from over," Fowler wrote.
"Keep the pressure on and make sure your elected officials understand
the nuance of the issue and the importance of protecting the open Web."